Nowadays it is pretty easy to buy a good factory rifle, top it with a nice optic, feed it quality ammo and have a rifle that will outshoot most hunter’s abilities. And while this will get the job done, some of us crave something a little better. There is nothing like a custom-built rifle and once you’ve had one, you always want more. I have owned several .300 Winchester Magnum rifles over the last 37 years and have always been a fan of the caliber. I sold off my last one a few years ago when I started shooting the excellent.300 PRC. But nostalgia began creeping in and I found myself wanting to get another .300 Win Mag.
I had come across a Remington 700 .300 Win Mag, so I decided to use this as a starting point for a custom rifle build. I reached out to Dave Fink at Fink’s Custom Gunsmithing, located at Gunsite Academy in Paulden, AZ and we put a plan together. Dave has done a lot of work for me over the years on all kinds of guns, so I knew he was the man for this project. I wanted an accurate elk rifle but one I could still carry around the mountain and, of course, it had to have a great trigger. I checked out Proof Research and asked about their carbon fiber wrapped barrels. Proof claims these can be up to 64% lighter than a similar steel barrel, which really makes a difference when carrying the rifle around a mountain top at 8,000 feet. Proof manufactures their carbon fiber barrels by starting with a full profile, match-grade 416R stainless steel barrel blank. They then turn it down, removing a large amount of the steel before wrapping it in their proprietary mix of matrix resin and aerospace-grade carbon fiber. This allows the barrel to shed heat quickly while retaining accuracy. Proof’s method of wrapping the barrel in carbon fiber actually makes the barrel stiffer which reduces harmonic vibration and allows little to no point of impact shift during high volume of fire. I opted for a 24” Sendero profile barrel with a threaded muzzle.
Next, we needed a trigger. There are plenty of good triggers out there for hunting rifles, but I wanted this to be a special gun. While at the SHOT Show, I met up with the guys from TriggerTech and they showed me their now famous Zero Creep trigger and I was instantly sold. I can be a bit of a trigger snob and it is usually one of the first things I upon which I judge a firearm. The TriggerTech triggers are extremely crisp and light without feeling dangerous. They will truly help your accuracy.
Once all of the parts were in hand, I shipped them off to Fink’s and let him work his magic. Dave started by performing a complete disassembly of the entire rifle to include removing the old barrel. Next, the action was accurized and blueprinted. The barrel was threaded with an M24 recessed target crown. It was then installed on the action and all of the metal was prepped for Cerakote finishing. This included the custom machined hybrid muzzle brake of Fink’s own design. This ingenious brake incorporates a 5 baffle system with 360 degree through porting. The ports are angled at 115 degrees for enhanced recoil reduction. The brake is then custom fit to the barrel to match the contouring and timing. All metal was finished with a combination of Cerakote satin tungsten or satin black finishes.
Fink’s took the factory Remington synthetic stock and gave it a complete overhaul. The old recoil pad was removed and the buttstock was squared at the toe and heel. A new Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad was installed and fitted. Grip panels were installed in the forend and grip. The stock was inletted for the new trigger group and the sling swivels were torqued and sealed. It was pillar bedded with a floating barrel channel which included full bedding of the receiver, barrel lug, tang and supported chamber. The stock was then sealed and finished with a Cerakote satin black finish.
When the rifle returned from Fink’s, I couldn’t wait to get it out to the range. But first, it needed an optic. When it comes to hunting optics, it is hard to beat Leupold, especially when using the CDS (custom dial system) and the ZeroLock systems. They have always been known for having excellent clarity by using top quality glass and coatings in a rugged water, fogproof and shockproof housing. When they came up with the CDS system, Leupold made long range hunting much easier. Here’s how it works: Once you buy the scope, you log on and enter your data to include caliber, bullet weight, bullet type, ballistic coefficient, muzzle velocity, temperature and elevation of where you hunt, sight height and sight-in zero. Your first set of ballistic dials is free and is shipped out quickly. You install it on the scope (just a couple little screws), then sight in the rifle. Then when you need to shoot farther, you just turn the dial to that distance and hold center. The ZeroLock feature keeps the dial in place at zero unless you press the button on the turret releasing it to move. This is a great system and one I use on most of my hunting and varmint rifles.
I went with a VX-6HD 3-18×44 optic, a full-length Backcountry Cross Slot Picatinny base, and PRW2 Cross-Slot rings. Fink’s had already mounted and torqued the base, so I just had to install the scope and rings, using a laser bore sight to get it close before going to the range. Once at the range, I settled in behind the rifle on the shooting bench and fired that first round. What a rifle! The muzzle brake took out a good chunk of the felt recoil making it easy to shoot. The TriggerTech trigger went off smoothly with no creep. After a couple of rounds and a couple of scope adjustments, the gun was sighted in and shooting groups under an inch using Black Hills 180 grain Nosler AccuBond bullets. I outfitted the rifle with a Harris 1A2-25C tall camo bipod which is my favorite hunting rest in the field. Now it was time to go hunting.
I took the rifle on a cow elk hunt with Spur Outfitters on their Wyoming ranch. I have been hunting with Spur Outfitters for almost 20 years now and they can always be counted on for great accommodations and top notch guides. I was joined on this hunt by Vince Sullivan, a G&G writer. The hunt manager, Jason Burke, guided us himself along with the help of fellow Spur guide Cody Miller. The weather was in the 40s with clear skies, not ideal for elk hunting, so the elk were hiding out in the high country. But Jason and Cody know their ranch well and they had us on a large herd by the afternoon of the first day. Jason drove and hiked us to the top of an 8,000 foot mountain and we soon found ourselves surrounded by about 400 head of elk.
Jason got us into position and a few minutes later about 100 head of elk ran out below us. Vince immediately made a great lung shot on a cow at about 250 yards. Using a Harris bipod, I took a seated position and found a cow broadside at 450 yards. The Black Hills .300 Win Mag round struck her in the right side behind the shoulder, punched through the top of the heart and lungs, then lodged in the hide on the left side of her chest. She walked a few feet then collapsed. The Nosler Accu-Bond bullet expanded well and performed perfectly.
There is something about having a custom-built rifle, knowing it was built to your specifications, that just feels good. When you have a top-flight gunsmith like Dave Fink do the work, you have the peace of mind knowing you have created a generational hunting rifle that will allow your kids and grandkids to keep putting meat on the table.